Outside Political Groups’ Spending Soars

Voting machines at Grady High School in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, John Spink)

Outside political groups operating in the 2014 congressional elections are spending four times as much money as they did during the 2010 midterms, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal based on data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

To anyone who follows campaigns, the growing influence of super PACs, conservative groups and liberal entities is well known.

What makes those figures even more remarkable is that they don’t include the millions of dollars spent this election by the biggest outside group involved in the 2014 election so far. Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group backed by the wealthy Koch brothers, is likely to pay for more campaign advertisements and other activity than any other outside group in the 2014 election.

Most of the money spent on television advertisements by Americans for Prosperity doesn’t have to be disclosed due to the quirky federal rules for disclosure of political spending. (Ads by Americans for Prosperity are considered to be based on “issues,” and not considered by election officials to be designed to influence elections; therefore it does not need to be disclosed as campaign spending.)

So far this election, a total of 150 organizations have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission reporting at least some spending on the election.

More of the groups are supporting Republican candidates than Democratic ones, but the overall amount of spending reported to the FEC was about the same for both sides, according to the data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The 80 conservative organizations have spent a total of $30.5 million on campaign activities thus far while the roughly 50 entities supporting Democratic candidates have spent $30.1 million, according to the data.

There are a handful of other entities could not be identified as supporting only Republican and Democratic candidates.

Of the top organizations operating in the election, many support Democratic candidates. The two largest pro-Democratic entities, Senate Majority PAC ($9.7 million in spending) and House Majority PAC ($3.4 million) are run by former Democratic party officials.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which so far has supported mostly Republican candidates, ranked No. 2 overall with $3.8 million in spending.

Fourth on the list is the pro-Democratic union Service Employees International Union with $3.2 million spent so far.

Even though the pro-Democratic and pro-Republican groups have each spent about $30 million so far, a significant portion of that money has been spent by GOP organizations in Republican primaries.

In several of the top Republican primaries around the country, such as in Mississippi and Idaho, mainstream Republican groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are spending money to fend off Republican primary challengers funded by conservative groups.

The main groups funding Republican challengers are the Senate Conservatives fund ($2.8 million in total spending) and the Club for Growth ($2.4 million).

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